Today we were going on a mini adventure! There is an island a couple of hours away from Brisbane where we can hopefully camp, so after some breakfast we checked out of the hostel and went to the train station for the first part of the journey. We were on the train for about an hour, then we arrived in Cleveland. We went straight to Tourist Information to find out if there was anything to do on the island, the answer was not really but at least we'd get to see somewhere different. We got a free bus to the ferry port and finally boarded the super fast sea taxi which took us across to the island.

We were booked onto a campsite practically on the beach and pitched our tent next to a couple from Castleford who had emigrated to Brisbane a couple of years ago, she was a nurse and he was a bus driver. The view we had from our tent was amazing, the sea was really clear and we were kept cool by a lovely breeze. The only disadvantage of being by the beach was in seconds our tent and everything in it was covered in sand!

We needed lunch so we headed to the BBQs on the campsite to warm our tins, as we'd done a few days ago in Hervey bay. Unfortunately the BBQ hot plate wasn't warm at all and the plan failed so we ate cold beans on bread, oh well!

We thought we'd see some of the island as we weren't too sure how long we were staying since we couldn't cook. We walked along the coast road in hope of spotting some Whales as they're currently passing by the island. We took a stroll along a coastal path, the water was unbelievably clean, and the air clean, we watched people surfing in the distance then spotted a Manter Ray just under the water about 50 meters away. We were buzzing watching it swim by really gracefully, excited we might see another we continued around the peninsular.....

Quickly running out of space on the camera card we then saw a Shark heading into the shallows of a cove. It was amazing, he was just hanging around probably looking for his supper. As we sat and watched two turles then turned up bobbing around onto of the water, every now and again they lifted their heads above the water as if for a photo then popped back down. Stunning. We must have watched for at least an hour moving around different vantage points, truly amazing, one of the highlights of the trip. As we headed back we were discussing how great it had been to see these animals in such conditions when Rachael screamed. There was a Kangaroo stood still eating grass just yards from us, the first we'd seen in Australia. An amazing afternoon, one Shark, loads of Rays, loads of Turtles and a Kangaroo, priceless. We were so lucky, as we spoke to others none had seen as much as we had, shows Australia in a different light.

We went back to the campsite buzzing and agreed to head back to Brisbane in the morning as there wasn't much else for us to do here. We grabbed some wine, spent an hour and a half trying to boil a pan of water before having to borrow a stove, and sat with the couple from Castleford for a drink or two. Before going to bed we went on the beachfront to have a look at the stars, it was so clear and then we hit the sack (well actually the sandy tent).